Yes, another year has passed and I am astonished, as always,
how some of the things that happened in the last twelve months seem so far back
in time! In many ways it has been an
eventful year, in terms of domestic and other personal matters, but as for the main
subject areas covered here the pattern of past years has continued, albeit with
a lessening of frequency and choice. In
particular, attendance at talks and conferences and other outreach programmes
has declined, partly because a lot of the stuff covered there is familiar or otherwise
easily accessible anyway. Nearing the
end of my eighth decade has also a lot to do with it. That said, I am still here, alive and
kicking, though for how long who can tell.
Anyway, let me start with the books I have read during 2019:
Books
1)
`Becoming` by Michelle Obama - isbn 978-0-241-33414-0 – Viking
p/b – © MO 2018 – 426 pp – an absolutely fascinating read – thorough in every
respect – one was immediately drawn into the narrative – she was/is conscious
of where she has come from and where she had ended up – her background,
ethnicity, educational achievements and personal and professional trajectory,
all of this is brilliantly captured, but that is only the `Becoming Me` part;
then come `Becoming Us` (and one can guess what that refers to) and `Becoming
More`; she makes no bones about her black working class background – a
respectable one – but more importantly what comes across is that hers was and
has always been an aspirational middle-class family and her outlook on life has
been shaped by these values – an auspicious beginning for my book reading for
this year!
2) `Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British` by Jeremy Paxman
- isbn 978-0-670-91957-4 – Viking h/b – © JP 2011 – 355 pp (incl end notes,
bibliography, index) – a scholarly study (though not amounting to an academic
critique, more like an intelligent traveller`s overview) of the history of the
British Empire and its spread through the centuries right through to its demise
– in a narrative style befitting a veteran journalist and tv presenter.
3)
`Why I`m No Longer Talking to White
People About Race` by Reni Eddo—Lodge – isbn –HB 978-1-4088-7055-6 –
Bloomsbury Circus h/b – © R E-L 2017 – “On 22 February 2014, I published a post
on my blog” titled as in the book.
“After I pressed publish, the blog post took on a life of its own. Years later, I still meet new people … who
tell me that they`ve read it”. This book
was published in 2017, so `years later`?
It just shows the superficiality of the whole project. I found it a rant, and the more I read it the
more I was put off it. There are some
observations which are fine; the rest is a reverse form of prejudice and
partiality.
4)
`Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death
of Sir Walter Ralegh` by Anna Beer – Onward Public - ISBN 978-1-78607-434-8 – © AB 2018 – 318 pp –
a comprehensive biography of Elizabeth I`s favourite and renowned explorer who
was put to death by her successor James I for an alleged treasonous plot –
found it too detailed and got bored halfway through to a tortuous end.
5)
`Warlight` by Michael Ondaatje –
isbn 1787330710 9781787330719 – Jonathan Cape h/b – © MO 2018 – 290 pp – set in 1945 London as the war was coming to an end –
about a young brother and sister more or less abandoned by their parents in the
care of a mysterious figure whose lifestyle bordered on crime – their fate
pieced together by the brother in later life – found the going too taxing and
not very interesting, so gave up three-quarters way.
6)
`When She Was Bad` by Tammy Cohen – isbn
9781784160197 – Black Swan p/b – © TC2016 -
-
pulp fiction – office politics of the lower middle ranking workers who are also
the sort of people who read this sort of book while commuting – this is the
third disappointing book in a row – it made light holiday reading during our
Moroccan trip in May, but I must switch back to serious stuff.
7)
`Turbulence` by David Szalay – isbn
9781787331167 – J Cape h/b – © DS 2018 – 136 pp – after a crop of dull and
uninspiring books, this slim offering by a previously Man Booker-shortlisted
author made a delightful change – it is basically a relay race of the air, with
one passenger handing over the baton, so to speak, to the next in a sequence of
flights starting out from (and returning to) London through interconnected
destinations across the world, the narrative thread linking the respective
characters to their local geo-cultural settings.
8)
`The Fox` by Frederick Forsyth –
isbn 9780593080580 – Bantam h/b – © FF 2018 – 307 pp starts off well – with a
useful insight into the working of the secret service network of MI5, MI6,
GCHQ and associated off-shoots and of
their political masters – then slides into a poor script for an imagined
scenario that taxes the reader`s credulity – expected better from a master of
spy novels.
9) `Close to the Edge` by Toby Faber – isbn 9781999613532 – Muswell
Press – pb – 326 pp – © Faber Productions 2019 – this too turned out to be disappointing
– was drawn to it when I heard an interview with the author, who used to be
managing director of Faber & Faber, on a literary programme on Radio 4 –
the `edge` is a reference to standing on a London tube platform where the
narrator sees a man topple over in front of a train and get killed and the
mystery is whether it was suicide or murder – we are witness to its detection
but the plot becomes convoluted and the ending a dampener – a tale for
teenagers really!
10) `Forward to Independence: My Memoirs` by Fitz de Souza – isbn
978-10-93146-88-2 – © FRSdeS 2019 – (self-published: Printed in Poland by
Amazon Fulfillment) – 319 pp – a promising but a little disappointing read –
notwithstanding the laudatory endorsements by Hilary Ng`weno, Lord Steel of
Aikwood and Victoria Brittain – could have done with professional editing –
that said, his personal and political trajectory covered familiar ground and as
one who knew him during my time as a lawyer in Nairobi, a lot of the writing made
sense, even if many assertions seemed doubtful and exaggerated – had hoped to
do a proper review but there is a lot on record already and the impulse has
waned.
11) `The Gift of Travel: The Best of Travellers` Tales` ed by Larry
Habegger, James O`Reilly and Sean O`Reilly – no isbn – © 1998 Travellers Tales
Inc – Cal USA – May 1998 – 225 pp – a collection of travellers` tales by an
assortment of authors/contributors – fascinating … found good to dip into at bedtime.
12) `The Disappearance of Emile Zola: Love, Literature and The Dreyfus Case`
by Michael Rosen – isbn 978-0-571-31201-6 – Faber& F h/b – © MR 2017 – 302
PP – a fascinating study of Zola`s involvement with the campaign to clear
Dreyfus`s name after his wrongful conviction – it was interesting to read about
how he, Zola, was feted as a literary celebrity during his earlier 1893 visit –
I was reminded of the Sultan of Zanzibar`s 1875 tour at the peak of Victorian
grandeur (as recounted in Judy Aldrick`s The Sultan`s Spymaster, reviewed at p
126 of my book) only then having to lie low during his 9 month exile in 1899 at
the centre of this tale – EXTRACTS from Emile Zola:
at p 193: “Several questions raised by all this are about the
movement of opinion. Between, say, 1880
and 1900 were those members of literary groupings changing their attitude to
the depiction of love, sex and class in literature? Did enthusiasts of Zola convince those who
disapproved? Was Zola`s work the catalyst for change – a process that runs
through perhaps, D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce, all the way to the Lady
Chatterley trial of 1960? I suspect it
was all these, with many nuanced variations in between. … no single “Zola”, there were censored and
uncensored works … the tide flowing from Flaubert, Maupassant and Zola to
Hardy, Shaw and James. Things were
moving … a new `republic of letters` was taking place”;
at p 216: Zola told Sherard [Robert Sherard, author of the
biography of Zola in 1893] [as recounted in The Humanitarian, February 1898]
“It seems incredible to me”, Zola said, “that one hundred years after the
French Revolution, by which the equality of men was proclaimed and an end put
to all enmities between races and creeds, it should be possible to raise up so
many Frenchmen, grandsons of the Revolution, against other Frenchmen, because
the latter are men of a different derivation, professing a different creed”.
Anti-semitism had been accepted by the mass of the people, Zola claimed, as the
“newest form of Socialism” [which equated capitalism with the Jews];
at p 221 – oblique reference to Conan Doyle`s defence of “a
foreign solicitor`s wrongful imprisonment a few years earlier” (as analogous
to Zola`s defence of Dreyfus) - this was the case of George Edalji, subject of `Arthur and George` by Julian Barnes, noted in Annual Review of 2006 and in my book at p 165.
Note: the Emile Zola was my `study` book
during our 2 week cruise in November down to the Canaries – and the first
completed work after my eye episode in June that has affected my reading of
printed literature – but the ship (the Saga `Spirit of Discovery`) had an
excellent library where I also managed to browse through the following books:
(a) `The Last Hurrah: The 1947 Royal Tour of
Southern Africa and The End of Empire` (or as in the spine with the subtitle
`South Africa and The Royal Tour of 1947`) by Graham Viney – © GV 2018 –
isbn 978-1-47214-318-1 – h/b – www.littlebrown.co.uk – excellent work of reference for a study of SA
politics and society (including racial divisions) – how the Royal Tour was seen
as a reward for the country`s support for Britain`s war effort during WWII –
(b) `In the Shadow of the Raj:
Derry Moore in India` - isbn: 978-3-7913-8332-3 publisher: www.presetel.com – edited
by Nathaniel Gaskell – coffee table size, with stunning b & w shots of
people and places - EXTRACTS from Mark
Tulley`s Foreword:
“Many will argue that I am moved
by Derry Moore`s photographs because I wallow in nostalgia for the Raj. I may well be criticised for ignoring so much
which needed to change in India, and has been changed by the fierce wind of
globalisation. There is an argument to
say more needs to change. I accept all
this but I would still argue that it is in India`s interests and nature to go
forward by evolution than revolution, to meet challenges to its culture by
osmosis rather than surrender, to respect the past and accept the value of
tradition alongside the need to change, to reject the black-and-white view of
history and so concede that the British Raj was not an entirely black period in
her history. So I make no apologies for
my nostalgia when I look at Derry Moore`s moving photographs of an India that I
feel is passing away with too little regret.”
(c) `Blind Spot` by Teju Cole –
forward by Siri Hustvedit – Faber & F - isbn 978-0-571-33501-5 – © TC 2017
– 325 pp – pictorial – PS by author `A Map of the World`, Brooklyn, March 2017:
“In each place I have visited, I have used my camera as an extension of my
memory. The images are a tourist`s
pictures in this sense. They also have
an inquiring feeling to them and, in some cases, showed me more about the
places than I might have seen otherwise”.
And the proof lies in the pudding – the catalogue of all the varied
images from across the world is simply superb.
(d) `The Good Immigrant USA: 26
Writers Reflect on America` ed by Nilesh Shukla and Chemene Suleyman – isbn
978-6-349-70036-6 – www.littlebrown.co.uk –
enlightened discourse.
(e) `Black, Listed: Black British
Culture Explored` by Jeffrey Boakye –isbn 978-0-349-70055-7 - © JB 2019 – www.littlebrown.co.uk – as the title
implies! Informative and challenging.
(f) `Well-Read Black Girl: Finding
Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves` ed by Glory Edim –isbn 978 1 409 18927 5 0
– h/b - © GE 2019 + individual contributors – 249 pp – www.orionbooks.co.uk –
Intro by editor refers to authors like Toni Morrison, Zora Neal Hurston, Alice
Walker, Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou – and many more – “as black women we define
ourselves for ourselves ... not looking for validation because we have one
another. We have always had to take care
of ourselves … creating our own boundaries”.
As Toni Morrison states in `Beloved` : “Definitions belong to the
definer, not the defined”.
13) `A Delhi Obsession` by M G Vassani – isbn 9780385692854 (hardcover)
– Doubleday Canada (Penguin RH Canada) – © MGV 2019 – 279 pp – how
extraordinary to end this year`s reading list with this by one of my favourite
authors – the story line of romance and fantasy interspersed with snippets of
MGV`s own life trajectory makes easy reading, though set against the rise of
Hindu nationalism in India where the main action, so to speak, takes place and
where as he observes in the epilogue, “you could not, as a person of Indian
origin, just be, but were always
branded communally – Hindu or Muslim in my experience – no matter your beliefs,
background, upbringing, complexities, peculiarities” rings so true, especially
at this time (Dec 2019) when the controversy over restrictive citizenship laws
there is raging.
(Note: As usual, an
eclectic selection, yes, though I was disappointed with quite a few of my
choices. I certainly could have done with more time to read one or two of those
that I had a look at on the ship I am now entering a phase when reading will
become a little less and so hopefully more selective and concentrated.)
Films, Plays, Concerts etc
1) Fri 04 Jan – NFT3 - `The Passenger` (Dir Michelangelo
Antonioni – Italy, France, Spain 1975, with Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, et
al) – one of his much acclaimed film noir of the period – with a contemporary
take on African politics and intrigues – a thriller in the classic mode of our
hero (a young Nicholson) first exchanging identities with a dead man involved
in gun running and then trying to thwart those chasing him –against a stunning/
running sequence of escapades through the Moroccan, Spanish and Italian
landscapes – an intense experience – this was one of those standard NFT
retrospectives of old movies – 8/10
2) Thu 31
Jan – Odeon Epsom – NT LIVE - `I `m Not
Running` - live screening of the political play by David Hare – excellent –
superb performances – intellectually gripping and though-provoking - on a snowy evening too! – echoes of the drama
lingered on for long - 9/10
3) Thu 07 Feb – NFT Studio - `Burning` (`Beoning`) – Dir: Lee Chang-dong (S`th Korea, Japan,
Australia – Korean/Eng subt - 148 mins – a brilliant cinematic rendering of a
plot loosely based on Haruki Murakami`s story `Barn Burning` first published in
the New Yorker in the early 90s –
replete with metaphors and literary allusions – the story centres around three
troubled young people whose lives interact with tragic consequences - 8/10
4) Wed 27 Feb – NFT1 – Wall
+ Q&A (with David Hare and Director Cam Christiansen – Canada 2017 – 82
mins) Preview of this animated documentary about the impact of the Wall between
Palestinians and Israelis – extraordinary in its style, presentation and
content – with onscreen dialogue and discussion with protagonists on both sides
and people like David Grossman – stayed on the for the Q&A but left midway
because the talk was much too much about the technique of the production and
not so much about the underlying issues, which they may have tackled later, who
knows; I had gone prepared with something to contribute based on my review of
Edward Said, The Last Interview (the 2004 documentary of his last interview)
- 7/10
5) Tue 05 Mar – ICA - `Hale
County This Morning, This Evening` - Dir: Ramell Ross, USA, 2018, 76 mins –
impressionist documentary of contemporary quotidian Black lives in Alabama –
with images of family, social, sporting, and other normal daily activities – 7/10
6) Wed 09 Apr – ICA - `3
Faces` - Dir: Jafar Panahi – Iran 2018 – Farsi & Turkish – Eng sub-ttl
- 101 mins – another road movie by this celebrated Iranian director banned from
his own country – this one takes us into the depths of the Azeri-speaking rural
region of NW Iran – the depth of cultural isolation and backwardness is at the
centre of the story, throwing up issues of gender inequality and the thwarting
of a young girl`s ambition to go to an art college in Tehran – the film won the
Best Screenplay Award at Cannes – I didn`t think it merited that – the
narrative was rather disjointed and the editing rather poor - 6/10
7) Wed 17 Apr – NFT3 - `The
River` - Dir: Jean Renoir – USA 1951 – a classic Renoir of the `50s –
filmed wholly in India – based on Rumer Godden`s novel – she also co-wrote the
screenplay with Renoir – Satyajit Ray assisted in the direction, though not
credited, which led to his, Ray`s, flowering as a film maker in his own right –
a superb cast and narrative – the film was introduced by academic Varsha
Panjwani who made much of the character Melanie (played rather woodenly I
thought by Radha) who was not in the original novel but was brought into the
screen version as the Indian presence (she as the child of an English father, a
liberal philosophically inclined widower and an Indian mother who had long
died); a fine production, with colour and complex characterisation of the three
teenage girls at the centre of the story all in love with the visiting young
American army veteran with a wooden leg – charmingly told against a realistic
backdrop of Bengali life and culture -
8/10
8) Wed 08 May -
NFT2 - `Maborosi` - Dir: Hirokazu
Kore-Eda – Japan 1995 – Eng subT – 110 mins – a happy marriage with a newly
arrived baby is suddenly at an end because of the husband`s unexplained death –
accident or suicide? – a meditative trail through the widow`s life after that
trying to come to terms with the loss – remarriage and relocation from Osaka to
a rural coastal settlement – and the portrayal of a new life there with the new
husband a widower with a young daughter and how they all adapt to living
together – beautifully shot to show the beauty and the grimness of their locale
against the elements - 8/10
9) Tue 14 May – Epsom Odeon
- `All My Sons` by Arthur Miller –
NFT Live screening from The Old Vic – an absolutely superb, riveting, gripping
production of this Miller classic (Dir: Jeremy Herrin and Dir for Screen: Ross
MacGibbon) with simply superlative performances by Bill Pullman as Joe, Keller,
Sally Field as Kate Keller, Colin Morgan as Chris Keller and Jenna Coleman as
Ann Deever – we came away enriched and enlightened (and remembered the first
time we saw it performed live at the National Theatre in Nairobi in 1964 as a
courting couple!) - R & K - 10/10
10) Sun 2 Jun – RFH
Concert (Philharmonia Orchestra -
Pablo Heras-Casado conductor - Nicola
Benedetti violin) : Mendelssohn (Fingal`s Cave overture), Bruch`s Violin
Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovski`s 4th Symph – simply
superb - 10/10
11) Sat 29 Jun – NFT1 - `Photograph` - LIFF closing night gala - (Dir: Ritesh
Batra, of `The Lunchbox` fame) – but for someone whose international
directorial credentials have now been firmly established, with `Our Souls at
Night` starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford and `The Sense of an Ending`,
based on Julian Barnes novel, starring Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling and
Michelle Dockery, I was disappointed in this moving which I found lacking in
many respects – I may write a proper review of it, for now I would give it
- 5/10
12) Tue 27 Aug – NAT
THEATRE - `The Secret River` https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-secret-river the Sydney Theatre Company production of this
based on the historical novel by Kate Grenville which I had read many year ago
– impressive, though at time a bit stilted or overdone, and sometimes the
Aussie speech was difficult to follow – on the whole good - 6/10
13) Mon 07 Oct – LFF –
EGC - `Blackbird` (dir: Roger Michell – Susan Sarandon, Kate
Winslet Mia Wasikowska, Sam Neill, Lindsay Duncan) - USA, 2019, 97 mins - drama
of SS`s declared intention to die at a pre-arranged time of her choosing
surrounded by family – relationships dynamics – beautifully acted – superb – 9/10
14) Tue 08 Oct – LFF –
NFT1 - `Guest of Honour` (dir: Atom
Egoyan – David Thewlis, Laysla De Oliveira, Luke Wilson) – Canada, 2019, 105
mins) – a family drama with a touch of mystery, a food inspector`s life and
work revealed through flashbacks from a daughter`s perspective as narrated to a
priest engaged by her to conduct his funeral, with interesting twists and turns
– good – 7/10
15) Thu 06 Dec – ICA - `The Irishman` (dir: Martin Scorsese –
Robert Di Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino + others) – USA 2019 – 209 mins –
wow! Had some misgiving about spending a
whole afternoon seeing this three and a half hour movie but the ICA special
member`s offer was too good to miss, as was the film itself – based on real
life events surrounding the mafia and Jimmy Hoffa`s Teamsters Union shenanigans
– Di Niro, who played the cold-blooded hit man Frank Sheeran was superb (and
while his reign of terrible murders and accompanying violence was sickening at
first, one could not but be drawn into the flow of the narrative of crime and
gangster politics after Joe Pesci entered the scene as the boss of
Pennsylvanian crime family and later when Al Pacino appears as Jimmy Hoffa and
then the tale gets too gripping to worry about the morality of their crimes –
towards the end Di Niro`s character evokes a sort of empathy even, in his
search for salvation for all the wrongs he has committed – this is a film which
I think will attract Oscar nominations for the plot, direction and acting and
the screenplay – well let`s see – 9/10
(Note: Again, as usual, a
wide and varied selection, and one with which I am very pleased, though I could
have done more on the musical front. As it happens, there are one or two films
which I wish I could see at the year`s end but that alas is not possible now.)
Lectures, Talks, Events etc
Sat 1 Jun – H&W Library – GLA Event: docu-presentation by Dr Renu Modi (Professor at Centre for African Studies at University of Mumbai) of the trans-Indian Ocean Khanga and Kitenge phenomenon history and contemporary manifestations + talk by Rohit Vadhwana, First Secretary Indian High Commission, UK = Q&A
Sat 13 Jul – LSE – Book launch of Fitz de Souza`s `Forward to Independence: My Memoirs` = Q&A
Miscellany and Conclusion
Sat 1 Jun – H&W Library – GLA Event: docu-presentation by Dr Renu Modi (Professor at Centre for African Studies at University of Mumbai) of the trans-Indian Ocean Khanga and Kitenge phenomenon history and contemporary manifestations + talk by Rohit Vadhwana, First Secretary Indian High Commission, UK = Q&A
Sat 13 Jul – LSE – Book launch of Fitz de Souza`s `Forward to Independence: My Memoirs` = Q&A
Miscellany and Conclusion
I could repeat almost
word for word what I wrote at the end of my review of 2018. Fundamentally nothing much has changed, but as
far as outreach activities are concerned inertia, advancing age and a
continuing deterioration in road and transport networks have all had a negative
impact. However I continue to write my
AwaaZ columns and other bits and pieces here and there, and so the
intellectual life remains in place.
The most important and
significant event this year of course has been the publication at last my book
– see the last post. Its effect is still
reverberating. I have given two talks
about it to an appreciative audience and am hoping to engage in more such
appearances. I have also received good feedback from a number of people who have
read the complete book or parts of it.
To be quite frank, I am also enjoying re-reading the finished
(published) version myself from time to time.
As to what is to become of my vast collection of papers and other
material, I don`t have the energy or
the inclination to think of what to do about them just yet.
And so we come to the end
of this year and on to the next - 2020. I have always felt a little excitement
at the prospect of reaching this millennial milestone; it has a touch of magic and
conveys a sense of balance and equanimity, and not just in terms of vision. One can only hope that global politics as well
as interpersonal relations all around will realign accordingly. Happy New Year!
RAMNIK
SHAH
(c) 2019
(c) 2019
Surrey,
England
